Kimchi, not for me

I bought and read Harry Potter #6 Sunday afternoon. For those of you interested in a debate about Christians and Harry Potter, this is not the place for you. I feel strongly about it, and I could go there...but unless provoked, will not. I'm in the process of learning (attempting to learn?) to take myself less seriously...and part of that is not feeling the need to share my opinion at ALL times. Of course, it doesn't mean I won't...just that I'm trying to do it less. (I will, however, put in a plug for discerningreader.com, my favorite online Christian bookstore - for not only selling intelligent Christian responses about Harry Potter, but for also selling the book itself - I knew I liked you for a reason!)I'm getting away from the point though (imagine that). After reading book #6, I wanted to read book #5. I can read very fast, and devour the HP books, and then promptly forget them all. I re-read books 1-4 two years ago (or more, I can't remember) before book 5 came out, but then read book 5 so fast that I don't remember anything. I wanted to buy the book - it would be nice reading material for my flight and airport time coming up, but haven't had time to get to the bookstore, so I downloaded the audio book, which is a whopping 26 hours! Insane! Now...all of the previous paragraph was said to say this simple fact: the phrase "indigo sky" was used in the book and I heard it, and decided to change the background to blue. Ha. I am entirely incapable of getting to the point...like, ever.

On to more interesting (hopefully) matters. Do you still call it "take-out" if the restaurant delivers it to your place? I'm not sure. In any case, I had wonderful Jenny order some food for me before I left work, to be delivered to my apartment. It was Chinese food (not as I ever knew it in the States though, but still tasty). Here, they bring you food on actual plates. You eat, then stack all the dishes, put them in a plastic bag (like you would get from a store), then take them downstairs and leave them outside the door to the building. The delivery guys come back and pick up the dishes after a few hours.

Yesterday was a monumental day for me because (drumroll, please) I received the advance edition (it's the September issue) of my church's magazine, which is the one I'm writing for now, and the September issue would be the first one I wrote in. I don't think I ever mentioned on here how much of a larger-scale thing the magazine is than I thought it was. I thought it was just for the Onnuri Church - I go to a branch of Onnuri church - there are 4 campuses in Seoul, with services in over 10 languages and over 40,000 members. I'm quite bad at estimation, so I don't know how many people attend the English ministry I go to...but definitely multiple hundreds. In any case, the magazine goes out to about 10,000 people - and I seriously thought the pastor was playing a joke on me when he told me that after I had already turned in the assignments for the September issue. I'm a big fraidey cat, and so I think it was providential that I didn't know how many people get it...I probably wouldn't have started. The point though, is not the numbers at ALL...I can't even think about it or I freeze up and can't write a word. The point isn't that I wrote well...because I honestly don't think I did. The point is that this (writing for the magazine, not to mention the entirely significant fact of being published - even in just a magazine - for the first time ever) is a step in the right direction. I love to write, I don't know what, if anything more, will ever come out of my love for writing, but this is extremely gratifying and thoroughly enjoyable.

Besides that, I'm stressed out an awful lot because I have way too much to get done before Sunday when I leave for China. Providentially though, the time is going quickly. I'd rather be rushed and a little stressed than bored and counting down the minutes (though there is still some of that going on!). That's all. Gotta do some work before I go to bed. Night all!